Council Rock Passes Budget with 1.3 Percent Tax Increase

The Council Rock School Board has passed a final budget for 2013-2014 that increases taxes by $55 for the average household.

The $209.4 million budget calls for a 1.3 percent tax increase, which is under the 1.7 percent cap regulated by the state’s Act 1 Index. 

The average property owner in the Council Rock School District, which includes Newtown Borough, Newtown Township, Northampton Township, Wrightstown Township and Upper Makefield, will pay $4,333 in school taxes in 2013-2014.

The budget passed by a 6-3 vote during Thursday's meeting. Board president Wendi Thomas, board vice president Kyle McKessy and Paul Anagnostakos voted against the tax increase.

Thomas advocated for using more of the district’s $29 million fund balance to make up for the $5.8 million deficit.

The fund balance is “far too much money for this district to be holding,” Thomas said. Instead of increasing taxes, Thomas said she’d rather reduce the burden on taxpayers by using the fund balance. 

But others said that wouldn’t be a prudent approach, especially because of the increasing obligation the district has towards paying into Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System, or PSERS.

The district’s PSERS contribution will increase by more than $5 million next year. In 2013-2014, Council Rock will contribute more than $18.4 million to the state retirement program.

That number is only expected to increase. 

By 2016-2017, Council Rock will be responsible for contributing 26 percent of its payroll to the PSERS fund, Robert Reinhart, the district’s director of business administration, has said. 

“What will happen in the end is we are going to be faced with increasing costs,” said Board member Patty Sexton. And if taxes don’t increase to meet the pension obligations “at some point we won’t be able to meet expenses unless we dig into programs,” Sexton said.

Board member Bill Foster said the budget was reasonable given the PSERS increase. Foster added that continually dipping into a reserve fund to meet the pension obligations is “not a sustainable course of action.”